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BEIJING: A candidate for a coronavirus vaccine developed through a unit of the National Pharmaceutical Group of China (Sinopharm) gave the impression of being and triggered antibody-based immune responses in early and intermediate trials, the researchers said.
The prospective vaccine has already entered a complex trial, with one of the few applicants being tested on several thousand people to see if it is effective enough to discharge regulatory approval.
Sinopharm is testing the potential vaccine in the United Arab Emirates in a phase 3 trial that is expected to recruit another 15,000 people because China has very few new instances to be a useful verification site.
The state-owned company will also provide the candidate to Pakistan as part of a test agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The shot did not cause any serious side effects, according to a paper published on Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by scientists who are part of Sinopharm and other China-based disease control authorities and research institutes.
The effects occurred on the knowledge of 320 healthy adults in phase 1 and 2 trials.
The candidate triggered physically powerful antibody responses in inoculated individuals, however, it is unknown whether this is sufficient to prevent COVID-19 infection, the researchers advancing the vaccine said in the paper.
Sinopharm’s president told state media last month that a potential vaccine could be available until the end of this year and that Phase 3 testing will be completed in about 3 months.
The new coronavirus, which has killed more than 750,000 people worldwide, has sparked a race to expand a vaccine. More than 150 candidate vaccines are being developed and tested worldwide.
Russia has become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a vaccine after less than two months of human testing, and a vaccine developed through the Chinese company CanSino Bilogics allowed its use in the military.
China leads the progression of at least 8 candidate vaccines at other stages of clinical trials.
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